Axes: Ecstatic Heights and Nightmare Depths
Bill Angus
A History of Crossroads in Early Modern Culture April 26, 2022 DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474499828.003.0001 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key points | Proposes that crossroads practices reflect a tradition of a vertical axis allowing access to the underworld or heavens, and that Hecate's triple form expresses this connection. Argues that the vertical axis concerns the nature of the human subject and its relationship to the divine, drawing on Platonic cosmology. |
Abstract
This chapter explores crossroads practice associated with traditions of gods and spirits both above and below, suggesting a tradition of a vertical axis allowing access to the underworld or the heavens, the realms of the divine and the dead. What lies beneath is of course both conceptual and archaeological, while what is above is both conceptual and cosmological. The crossroad goddess Hecate’s triple form expresses this as it embraces both Proserpine of the underworld and Diana of the Moon. The chapter also explores crossroads as the generative ‘mother of the ways’ and gendered ways of seeing both Y and X intersections. Going on to explain the cosmological crossroads of the ancient world, and the Platonic conception of the signature of creation itself, it shows how the vertical axis concerns the nature of the human subject and its relationship to the divine.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |